Multiple function wall cover plate

ABSTRACT

A multiple functions wall cover plate including Nightlight, Air fresher, Receptacles and desired functions which can simple replace the existing wall cover plate by single screw disassembly and fasten again which only spend seconds without any risk to hook the hot wires. Simple just plug multiple functions wall cover plate&#39;s prong into original wall outlet&#39;s receptacle to build the electricity delivery and enjoy the multiple functions from the current invention. It is also perfect to apply the multiple function wall cover plate to new building to cover the electric wall outlet device.

This is the C.I.P filing case of the co-inventor's Ser. No. 10/954,189, filed Oct. 1, 2004 for Electro-Luminescent wall cover plate.

BACKGROUND

The Multiple functions wall cover plate have been disclosure by several US prior arts including U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,714,725, 6,810,204, 6,832,794, 6,839,506 but with a super thicker housing and very dangerously to children for its easily move out the chemical refill. The current invention do use screw to security lock the all components to prevent children to touch the chemical staff. The thicker body of these priors are too ugly because those construction are added-on the existing wall cover plate, the current invention's concept is to replace the existing wall cover plate so the thickness will be much thin than those prior arts. Especially, the current invention use a conventional market available refill which have the dimension 6.5 cm (Length)×3.5 cm (Width)×0.8 cm (High) as refill and simple install on the back housing, this also reduce thickness for appearance.

The current invention further incorporated (1) Air-fresher, and (2) Nightlight may be including the Electro-luminescent (hereafter as E.L.), LED, Incandescent, Fiber Optics, Fluorescent, black tube, and its related circuit board and . . . etc. for the light source, and (3) Receptacles (may be in the form of any quantity of the number of receptacles) to let the said multiple wall cover plate have best functions to consumers.

The other US prior arts such as

-   U.S. Pat. No. 6,716,256 -   U.S. Pat. No. 6,657,380 -   U.S. Pat. No. 6,642,452 -   U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,598 -   U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,345 -   U.S. Pat. No. 6,342,995 -   U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,893 -   U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,211 -   U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,716 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,451 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,549 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,763 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,166 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,776 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,459 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,930 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,879 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,025 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,356 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,721 -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,734 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,349 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,641 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,913 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,187 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,613 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,419 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,789 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,780 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,090 -   U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,582 -   U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,225

Including the co-inventor's prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,280,053, 6,171,117, 6,170,958, and 6,183,101, none of the prior arts disclosure the multiple functions wall cover plate have plurality of functions including the (1) fragrance(s), and (2) receptacle(s), and (3) nightlight(s) to easily to replace the original wall outlet's cover plate and make electricity delivery from the prong(s) of the multiple functions wall cover plate as the current invention description below. Especially, the multiple functions wall cover plate with similar configuration of existing wall outlet's shape with most thin thickness to replace it with safety screw to prevent children to touch any parts of the said refill, or nightlight, or receptacle.

DRAWING

FIG. 1: Disclosure the side-view of construction for front cover and back base of preferable embodiment of current invention.

FIG. 1-1: Disclosure the side-view of the construction with alternative space arrangement of the current invention.

FIG. 2: Disclosure construction for the current invention from the front view and scent flowing and light beams emitting direction of the said multiple function wall cover plate.

FIGS. 2-1 and 2-2: Disclosure the front cover's front view and back view for the preferred embodiment of the said FIG. 1-1.

FIG. 3: Disclosure the back plate of the preferred embodiment inner side and its details arrangement.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION

The multiple functions wall cover plate as FIG. 2, the front-view of the said wall cover plate (10) has at least one ventilation area (11) (11 a) to allow the inside refill's fragrance (not shown) can be spread out to environment with at least one of the nightlight areas (12) (12 a) (12 b) may incorporated with preferable light source which may selected from the group combinations from the Electro-luminescent, LED, Incandescent, Neon light, Fluorescent tube, Black tube, gas filled light source or the equivalent light source to offer the nightlight function. The light source may connect with the power source from the prongs by preferable contact means (15) (15 a) and circuit means (not shown). The said multiple functions wall cover plate with at least one pair of receptacles (14) (14 a) to keep the existing wall outlet functions without reduced number of receptacles while apply this multiple functions wall cover plate. The said multiple functions wall cover plate have a center screw hole (18) to allow the said multiple functions wall cover plate can be security fasten by a screw though the original outlet's screw hole and replace the original outlet's wall cover plate. The multiple functions wall cover plate have at least one pair of prong sets which can be simple insert into the original wall outlet's receptacle and build the electric delivery from the original wall outlet to the multiple function wall cover plate's receptacle or receptacle(s) which depend on the market requirement from the two receptacles to the any number of receptacles which only need to make the proper inner copper-piece design so can meet the desired numbers of receptacles.

From the FIG. 1, disclosure the side-view of the said multiple functions wall cover plate. The front cover (100) and back base (101) are positioned and fasten by the screws (104 b) (105 b) (106 b) (107 b) (108 b) though the channel (104) (105) (106) (107) (108) and hold the plastic posts (104 a) (105 a) (106 a) (107 a) (108 a). The back base (101) have at least one of the width 3.5 cm×6.5 cm grooves located on the preferable locations which may at the (103 a) (103 b) (103 c) to allow the refill (103) to fit into with tighten means properly. The cooper means (109) (110) in the form to allow the current deliver from the original receptacle to the multiple functions wall cover plate's receptacle. It maybe from one original receptacle to multiple receptacles for examples from 1 original receptacle to 1 or 2 or 3 . . . etc. The copper means may in desired desire purpose as conventional market available type. Because the back base (101) replaced the original wall outlet's cover so the back base (101) can attached the wall outlet's receptacle surface as close as possible to reduce the overall heights to get the best and thinnest thickness and appearance. The front cover (100) has a hole (120 a) to allow the screw (121) to pass though the hole (120) of back base to fasten on the original wall outlet's screw holder (not shown). The cooper means (109) (110) are well installed within the channels (109 a) (110 a) to meet the safety standard and not reachable by consumer. The refill (103) may located on the top (103 a) or middle (103 b) or low (103 c) position as long as the width of these groove have 3.5 cm width so it can be have more than 1 refill can be install on the current inventions and get longest and strongest fragrance dispenser result than any other devices as prior arts. The at least one of the heater means (112) can well arranged on the top a pair of the cooper means (109) or (110) so can get the electric deliver within the pair of cooper means to produce the heat and let the air in front of the refill surface been move upper and let the refill's fragrance to spread out as wider as possible while the electricity is connected. At least one light source (not shown) is well arranged within the gaps (105 a) with the support board (105) to seal inside the back base to prevent from consumer touch and hold at perfectly location. The light source may be selected from group combinations from Electro-Luminescent (E.L.), LED, Fluorescent tube, black light, neon light, other equivalent light means and its related circuit means for light source for illumination. The light source can be arranged as many location as market required with conventional available technical. The light source can use co-inventor's U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,958 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,117 by resilient conductive means of rubber or metal material or with extra conductive means such as wire, metal panel, strips, terminals to make the electric delivery from the light source(s) means to the copper mean(s). These skills are available from co-inventor's earlier patents and other prior arts.

The current invention as above discussed of one preferable embodiment of the multiple functions wall cover plate to replace the original wall outlet's wall plate, not only offer a air-fresher dispenser function but also offer a nightlight, multiple receptacles, and more than 1 refill(s) compartments within the compact space with quickly electric connection by simple insert the current invention's cooper means into the original wall outlet's receptacle(s) without touch any hot wires. The preferable embodiment is only one example but not limited the scope of (a) The current invention have wall cover plate with similar configuration of the existing wall outlet cover plate (b) The current invention's wall cover plate with most compact thickness to allow the market available refill can well installation without creating new refill to cause consumer to purchase variety refill (c) Sealed the all fragrance, light source, receptacle(s) within the front cover and back base. The further more, the alternative or optional development such as (1) current receptacles may from 2 receptacle(s) increase to any number of receptacles such as 3, 4, 5, 6 . . . to N number. (2) The refill number can be increased from 1 to 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . to N number. (3) The cooper means/conductive means can designed for desired construction to make the preferable receptacle number (4) The front cover and back base can be made into certain number of piece to make the curved shaped of appearance (5) The seal means for the front cover and back base can selected from screw, glue, sonic sealing, hot sealing, chemical sealing, catch and hook, notch, melting, or other conventional technical which preferred. (6) The light source may selected from any combination from the E.L., LED, Bulb, Neon, Fluorescent tube, black light, gas filled bulb, halogen or the equivalent light with desired brightness with different power consumption. (7) The electric connection between the light means may be any conductive means combination which may including resilient conductive means such as conductive rubber or conductive spring, metal piece, wire, cooper strips, bracket, metal plate or any combination with clipper, soldering, rivet, spoting, welding, snapping or equivalent procedure to build the electric signal(s) delivery from one end to the other ends. (8) The functions can be increased or reduced depend on the marketing requirement. Less than the current 3 major functions of fragrance, nightlight, receptacles still fall within the current invention scope. Further more, to replace the any one of the receptacle(s), nightlight(s), fragrance(s) to other functions which may selected of time piece(s), bug repelled device(s), blue tooth electric controller(s), remote controller(s), Infra-red sensor(s), other electric related device(s) still fall within the scope of the said multiple functions of the wall cover plate which replace the original wall outlet plate. For the new building or house, It is more high-tech value while the builder to adapt the multiple function wall cover plate as current invention so can make the house value be much higher than other way.

From FIG. (1-1) disclosure the alternative design for the back case (101A) with only two refill compartments (103 a) and (103 c). The two wider prong's hole (15) (15 a) are located on the left side of the said back case. The two narrow prong's hole (14) (14 a) are located on the right side of the said back case. The central screw (not shown) can pass though the plastic tunnel (120 a) and opening (120) to fasten with the outlet device's screw holder (not shown). The refill compartment (103 a) (103 c) may have a lot of openings, cutouts, windows, holes, grills to allow the refill's scent can be passing though the back case (101A) to front cover (100A) and spread out from the front cover's grills, openings, cutout, windows, windows, holes (12 a) (12 b) (12 c) (12 d) as quickly as possible. The heater means (112 a) (112 b) may install adjacent with the prong means (not shown) so can get the electricity to make the hot air flow to upper and make the air flow to bring the scent to wider open area. The heater means can have one or more depend on the market requirement. The light means can be install within the front cover and back case with proper installation means.

From FIGS. 2-1 and 2-2, disclosure the details construction of the preferred front cover (10) with alternative openings, grills, windows, cutouts to allow the scent or smell of refill can be spread out quickly. These opening, grills, windows, cutouts also can allow the light means to emit the light out to viewer. The FIG. 2-1 is show the alternative design of front cover of the FIG. 2 and it can be any design as wished. The FIG. 2-2 is the detail construction of the inner side view of the FIG. 2.

From FIG. 3 is the details construction of the preferred back case (101) of FIG. 1. The two refill compartments (103 a) (103 c) have the screws stands (104 c) (104 b) (108 c) (108 b) to allow the screws (not show) to pass though and fasten with the front cover (not shown). The prong means are well located on the prong holes (109 c) (109 d) (110 c) (110 d) which are surrounded by the walls (109 e) (109 f) (110 e) (110 f). The center screw hole (120) allow the longer screw (not shown) to passing though and fasten with the outlet device's screw holder tightly.

The above discussed embodiment is not limited to the scope of the current invention of the multiple functions wall outlet cover plate. The all alternative, variations, equivalent functions, tiny changing still fall within the scope of the current invention. The prong means number can be at least one pair under some special requirement still can offer the two receptacles' power needed only need to make special design of cooper means/conductive means. The cooper means/conductive means also can be have any configuration as long as to make it works. The light means installation and selection from group of available type from market place is appreciated to still inside of the scope of the current invention. The attachment means, fasten means, installation means to make the front cover and back case is also belong to the equivalent functions of the discussed embodiment. 

1. A multiple functions wall cover plate consist of: At least one front cover and back base are assembled together with configuration similar with existing wall outlet cover plate having a hole to allow screw to fasten though the said hole to original wall outlet's screw holder At least one pair of cooper means to deliver the electricity from the original outlet's receptacle(s) to the said multiple functions wall cover plate's receptacle(s) to deliver the electric signal(s) to the electric device(s) At least one of the light sources are installed within the said front cover and back base and light emit out from the front cover surface for illumination to desired direction(s) At least one of the fragrance refill install on the back base's and can be replaced The optional heater means can be connected with prong means to get desired function.
 2. The multiple functions wall cover plate as claim 1, the said light source may selected from group combination of E.L., LED, neon light, black light, fluorescent light, gas filled bulb, or the equivalent light brightness light source with different power consumption.
 3. The multiple functions wall cover plate as claim 1, the said receptacle number can be any desired number from 1 to N. (N is any number)
 4. The multiple functions wall cover plate as claim 1, the said refill number can be any desired number from 1 to N. (N is any number)
 5. The multiple functions wall cover plate as claim 1, the said cooper means can be any configuration with conductive means combination to get electric delivery from the original wall outlet's receptacle(s) to current invention's receptacle(s) and light means with its circuit means.
 6. The multiple functions wall cover plate as claim 5, the said multiple functions wall cover plate's receptacle(s) number can be from 1 to N. (N is any number)
 7. The multiple functions wall cover plate as claim 5, the said cooper means have the blade and receptacle and wires, metal material, soldering material, soldering paste, resilient conductive means, and any desired combination of these means to make the electric delivery from existing outlet device to current multiple functions wall cover plate's light means and its related circuit means.
 8. The multiple functions wall cover plate as claim 1, the said similar configuration of existing wall outlet cover plate means the shape is rectangular within the length approximately 12-18 cm and width approximately 7-12 cm.
 9. The multiple functions wall cover plate as claim 1, the said functions may selected from the group combination from the (1)fragrance(s), (2)nightlight(s), (3)receptacle(s), (4)bug repelled(s), (5)time piece(s), (6)motion sensor(s), (7)infra-red sensor(s), (8)blue tooth electric device controller(s), or (9)other electric related device(s). 